Hadopi's Secret Internet Spying Spec Leaked

from the now-doesn't-that-make-you-feel-good dept

As a part of France's three strikes law, the organization in charge of implementing the program, Hadopi (which, we should remind you, was caught infringing itself in using a font it did not license for its logo), has been tasked with figuring out a way to actually block people from the internet, or to stop them from using certain file sharing programs. While there were public consultations on how to do this, the actual technical spec was supposed to have been kept secret. Not surprisingly, that didn't last very long. Glyn Moody points us to the news that the tool's spec has leaked. Basically, it's your everyday snooping software, that will monitor all internet traffic, including searching through files on your computer, and checking the router configuration. It will also act as a creepy form of Big Brother, with an alert system which, if it notices you using a file sharing program, says things like: "You are about to download a file using a P2P protocol - do you want to continue?" One hopes that it would include a button that says "Yes, Dammit, I'm Downloading Linux" or something of the sort, but that seems unlikely. The link above also notes that this appears to violate EU law, which prohibits a "general obligation to monitor."